Look, what do you want me to say? Buffet Chinese food, and a perfectly reasonable example of the genre. In terms of service and atmosphere, probably a slight cut above Buffet Palace.
Making qualitative distinctions among the various contenders after the food's been sitting on steam tables for hours, though, is not something I'm really interested in doing. If you want to get a lot of food at a reasonable price, you could do worse than China Star. Frankly though, who cares?
Consider the Platonic Ideal of the Chinese Buffet. In the best of all possible worlds, it would have all the delicious Chinese dishes you love, served up hot and sizzling, at a reasonable price. Alas, the reality of most Chinese buffets in Austin tastes more of the shadows on the cave wall than the real thing: limited selections, rubbery chicken, lukewarm wonton soup, tasteless entrees.
Now consider China Star, which seems to come closest to the Platonic Ideal than any other Chinese buffet. First, there's a huge selection, somewhere over 100 dishes. Second, like Hwa Yuan, they have crab legs; however, unlike Hwa Yuan, they also have the proper accompaniment to crab legs: drawn butter with garlic (at first I had doubts about it being served up in a tureen at the steam table, but it proved quite palatable). Unfortunately, the crab legs proved so popular that you had to be quick to get any, and even then a sign asked you to limit how many you piled on your plate. The chef's special (a spicy beef dish) was also quite good, and several other Chinese standards (General Tso's Chicken, sweet BBQ ribs) were very credible. And the softserve ice cream for dessert is a nice touch.
Most amazing of all was the service, which was as good or better than that at most non-buffet Chinese establishments. Our waitress kept our drinks refilled without having to be asked, and empty plates were swept off our table with effortless efficiency. China Star is a huge restaurant (I suspect they seat at least 250, and possibly more), but unlike many buffet venues, they seem adequately staffed. Whoever is running China Star seems to have their act together, a trait that seems increasingly rare among Austin restaurateurs.
However, as with any buffet, the quality of dishes varies. The sushi was neither particularly tasty nor well shaped, and the wasabi seemed particularly wimpy. I don't care for the black bean sauce the mussels were cooked in. The curry chicken was bland. The eggrolls were nothing special, and distinctly inferior to Kim Phung's. But the concurrent virtue of such a large buffet is that there are always more dishes to try, and to replace those you don't like. Another mild drawback is the location: they say that they're at 290 & I-35, and they are, but you can't really get there from that intersection (or from the Red Lion parking lot). Take the 290 feeder road east to the loop-around under the freeway just before Cameron.
At $8.99 for the buffet, China Star is hard to beat. In fact, they could raise the price a buck or two and I wouldn't mind as longt as you could get more crab legs. It would also help if they put out two or three trays of crab legs instead of just one. Even so, China Star clearly stands at the top of the Austin Chinese buffet heap.
Good Eats Cafe done right. Not a shock, since Hoover Alexander used to work for Good Eats.
While Lawrence is correct that the wings aren't particularly hot, I was quite fond of the sauce myself: it was a refreshing change from the standard Louisana hot sauce based wings that too many place serve. Not the best in town, but they would make the lower rungs of my top ten.
As for the main courses, I enjoyed the heck out of my jerked chicken (at $8.95, this was the biggest half chicken I've ever seen). Lawrence also let me sample a few of his ribs: I thought they were credible examples of the genere, almost as good as Artz Rib House. And, sure, good french fries aren't that much of an accomplishment: but you'd be shocked at how many places get them wrong.
The main thing that impressed me was the service. Our waitress wasn't extraordinary, but she was at least competent. Good service shouldn't be that unusual, but I've had a long streak of bad luck. (Especially at Good Eats, which appear to employ a collection of feebs and slackers second only to Thundercloud Subs.)
Maybe I had unreasonable expectations.
After all, it seems that everyone and their dog had been praising Hoover's to the sky since shortly after it opened. When I finally tried it, I found the food decent, but far from compelling.
For appetizers, we started out with hot wings and chicken quesadillas. Unfortunately, the hot wings weren't particularly hot, and the quesadillas didn't have enough cheese. Hardly an auspicious beginning. The salad was forgettable, but since they were available either as one of your two free sides (a wise policy), or as a cheap add on ($1.65, if memory serves), I'm not really complaining.
For my entree, I had the barbecued pork ribs, with a few jerked ribs on the side, and both were good, but not great. Even in town, I think Bongo's BBQ does better ribs. Likewise, the potato salad was OK, but not as good as that served at Texas Rib Kings. The Caribbean rice was adequate, though the presence of peas in the dish didn't do anything for me. Dwight's fries were good, but fries are pretty hard to screw up (though I've seen it done).
The service was attentive, the prices are quite reasonable, and there seemed to be plenty of parking (though getting hit on by a mute beggar in the parking lot didn't exactly make my day). Though not as impressive as word of mouth had lead me to believe, nothing we had was actually bad, and Hoover's gets enough right that I would be willing to give them another try. Maybe we just caught them on an off-night, or maybe I should have tried the chicken fried steak or the ham with Jezebel sauce, two other widely praised dishes. For now, however, I can't see, or taste, what all the fuss is about.
Shockingly okay TexMex. They remind me of Jorge's in the old days (that is, before Jorge's went down hill).
Fairly good service, decent chips and salsa, and good prices. The new location is a lot better than the old place (at 26th Street and I-35).
I haven't tried yet, but I bet they can make a good run at breakfast, too.
Though not outstanding, Enchiladas Y Mas (in their new digs on Anderson) marked at least a temporary abeyance of our Bad Mexican Food Karma. With the exception of the hash browns (which were slightly undercooked), everything I had there was in the average-to-good range. The service was acceptable, and they brought out a large plate of fixings (lettuce, onions, guacamole, etc.) to go with the chicken nachos. However, though nothing was bad, nothing was particularly compelling either. Though there are better versions of everything I had here elsewhere, this is still the best Mexican meal the SDC has had this year.
Enchiladas Y Mas is a decent neighborhood TexMex place, but so far it's only a waystation on the road to the Holy Grail of Exceptional TexMex.
Lawrence's idea of an all tapas meal wasn't a bad one, and we actually got off fairly cheap (about $30 each, with a salad). However, some of the dishes worked better than others.
Worked: escargot, mussels, chicken sausage, pate, Andrew "Dead Man's Party" Wimsatt's smoked prime rib, and calamari.
Didn't work: "Morrocan barbecued salmon ribbon" (say what?), seared tuna (seared on the outside, sushi-like but not as good on the inside).
The major problem with doing a meal like this is logistics: there just isn't enough room on the tables for all the plates, which forced our waiter to stagger and creatively arrange dishes.
Speaking of room, can't Louie afford a larger bar? Or an actual waiting area for customers?
As per our observations last year, Dwight and I decided to try an all tapas meal, while Andrew "Big Gun" Wimsatt opted for the prime rib special. By and large the tapas were quite satisfying. The escargot is the best I've had in Austin, with hearty chunks of garlic simmering in the drawn butter. The chicken sausage, the beef tenderloin bits, and the calimari were all delicious. The mussels were also tasty, and the portions very generous for tapas, but I think I'd still have to give the edge to Carrabba's. The quail was good, and while I wouldn't call the portions generous, it did cost about half what it would set you back at Zoot. The bit I had of the prime rib was also good, but not exceptional. The creme brulee was perhaps a touch less fine than last time, which made it still quite tasty indeed. Service was more than acceptable, though things slowed down just a bit toward the end of the meal.
Drawbacks? Well, for starters, those einsy winsey rippoff size bottles of Dr Pepper don't cut it. I find it hard to believe that Louie can't afford a CO2 dispenser. Among the tapas, the salmon ribbon is way too small for the price. The portions on the pepper-seared tuna were also quite small and, save for the searing, it was otherwise raw, but not up to sushi standards. The roasted hazelnuts on the house salad were an unpleasant surprise (since I don't like nuts), so I'll probably opt for a Caesar salad next time. However, those items aside, everything was very good and reasonably priced.
Sixth Street has long been defined (for good or ill) by its ever-mutating array of bars and dance clubs. But with such stalwarts as Louie's 106, Ruth's Chris, and (at the far west end) Cafe Josie now lining its length, it's also developing a well-deserved reputation as another restaurant row, and for this Austin palates should be grateful.
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